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Feb 26, 2011

Aerobics and Burning Excess Fat

If you are like the average American, you are either aware that you are carrying a few too many extra pounds or you want to prevent your doing so – either way, you are probably aware of the fact that aerobics has been credited with burning fat stored in the body.

Yet do you know just how these exercises are able to accomplish this feat? Is it the increase in body heat that melts the fat? Are diet pills and specially formulated diet teas and shakes able to rid your body of the excess fat is has accumulated?

Fat in and of itself is an amazing composition of different substances, all of which are designed to keep you alive and well should there come a time when food is scarce. Yet in modern day America food is plentiful, and the odds of famine and starvation are virtually non existent. Thus, the fat your body will accumulate will stay with you – around your midsection, thighs, chin, and derrière. As you consume your next fast food meal or high caloric treat, the excess fat travels to where the fat deposits in your body are already located. Non-fat foods have lured many into thinking that without the consumption of fat, there will be no more fat moving to those deposits; yet it has been proven that these non-fat foods are high in sugar, and sugar that is not used immediately by the body is converted into fat. As if this was not enough, carbohydrates of any kind that are not used right away are prepared by the body for long term storage in the form of fat!

Mind you, some fat is necessary. Without fat, your brain functions would be quickly impaired, and a woman’s reproductive health would be seriously jeopardized. A general rule of thumb implies that for males 8% - 20% body fat is normal while for females the range is from 13% - 25%. During aerobic exercise, your increased oxygen intake strengthens your heart and lungs and prepares the body to be able to do more physically exertive work; at the same time, fat is burned for fuel to keep the body going during the exercises, and this means in many cases that when depletion of the regular fat reserves is threatened, the harder to reach ones are tapped into next.

While exercising, your body will begin the fueling process by burning excess carbs, so you will need to maintain your exercise until these are replete. Once this is accomplished, the body will go for the fat next. By and large, after 20 minutes of continuous aerobic exercise, you may expect your carbohydrates to have been used up and your fat burning is about to begin! Yet this is not all! Once the body is running on fat fuel, it will continue to do so for up to six hours after you have ceased exercising!